March 19, 2025 Quick space links
Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay. This post is also an open thread. I welcome my readers to post any comments or additional links relating to any space issues, even if unrelated to the links below.
- Andoya spaceport signs partnership deal with satellite packager Exolaunch
Exolaunch will act to help Andoya integrate satellites on future launches.
- Chinese pseudo-company touts its capsules for both manned and cargo flights
It claims it will begin test flights in “2027 or 2028,” but the graphic at the link mostly shows copies of Dragon and Cygnus capsules.
- Exlabs and Antares form partnership to develop spacecraft using nuclear power for operations
The idea is to create better on-board power systems so that interplanetary missions will be less reliant on solar power.
- This week in 2011 NASA’s Messenger spacecraft became the first to enter Mercury orbit
It operated for four years, collecting data and images.
Readers!
My annual February birthday fund-raising drive for Behind the Black is now over. Thank you to everyone who donated or subscribed. While not a record-setter, the donations were more than sufficient and slightly above average.
As I have said many times before, I can’t express what it means to me to get such support, especially as no one is required to pay anything to read my work. Thank you all again!
For those readers who like my work here at Behind the Black and haven't contributed so far, please consider donating or subscribing. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
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You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay. This post is also an open thread. I welcome my readers to post any comments or additional links relating to any space issues, even if unrelated to the links below.
- Andoya spaceport signs partnership deal with satellite packager Exolaunch
Exolaunch will act to help Andoya integrate satellites on future launches.
- Chinese pseudo-company touts its capsules for both manned and cargo flights
It claims it will begin test flights in “2027 or 2028,” but the graphic at the link mostly shows copies of Dragon and Cygnus capsules.
- Exlabs and Antares form partnership to develop spacecraft using nuclear power for operations
The idea is to create better on-board power systems so that interplanetary missions will be less reliant on solar power.
- This week in 2011 NASA’s Messenger spacecraft became the first to enter Mercury orbit
It operated for four years, collecting data and images.
Readers!
My annual February birthday fund-raising drive for Behind the Black is now over. Thank you to everyone who donated or subscribed. While not a record-setter, the donations were more than sufficient and slightly above average.
As I have said many times before, I can’t express what it means to me to get such support, especially as no one is required to pay anything to read my work. Thank you all again!
For those readers who like my work here at Behind the Black and haven't contributed so far, please consider donating or subscribing. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
“a strategic partnership with Antares, a startup developing scalable microreactors for terrestrial and space applications“
(that’s Earth, Mars, moon, ships!)
“It provides high power and consistent energy for larger propulsion systems and larger payloads. Solar panels cannot provide the type of power that’s required for our envisioned future operations.”
Propulsion systems? Too much power for EM drive so they must be talking about reaction mass substitution for rocket fuel?
YES! it’s about time, once a workable model is in orbit…. the space race really takes off!
Arrays of high-power Hall Effect thrusters using argon as reaction mass would be readily implementable using extant technology. Argon is readily available and inexpensive on both Earth and Mars. But more exotic tech such as VASIMR might also prove practical given a suitably light and compact reactor design. This bears watching.